NOACA delays vote on rule change until September

CLEVELAND -- The board of the Northeast Ohio Area Coordinating Agency has decided to hold off until September before voting whether to change the rule that allows members of larger cities and counties to have more influence than others.

NOACA, an agency that distributes federal money to Lorain, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Medina and Lake counties, yesterday was to consider a rule change that would require two of the counties' board of commissioners to invoke its "weighted voting" rule, before it could be applied. Presently, a single mayor or commissioner on the 38-member NOACA board can have it apply. When the rule is not applied, the votes of all agency's board members have equal weight.

Lorain County Commissioner Betty Blair said part of the reason to hold off was that the Cuyahoga County commissioners were not prepared to support it. To go into effect, the change requires a majority vote of NOACA's board and ratification from each of the five counties' board of commissioners.

Based on a count of votes at the meeting, 22 NOACA board members voted for the change versus 11 who voted 'no.'

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Lorain and Medina counties threatened to pull out of the agency in 2007 when Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson invoked weighted voting on a project to build a new interchange on Interstate 90 at Lear-Nagel Road in Avon. Jackson and other Cuyahoga County officials said they would use their might to vote down the project unless it contained some type of revenue sharing agreement with some Cuyahoga County communities pertaining to new development in the area.

The project passed with the revenue sharing agreement, which Lorain County officials saw as highway robbery.

Blair said she hopes the issue can reach consensus after talks this summer.

In other news, Lorain County might be able to apply for money from a $75,000 NOACA account to fund a feasibility study for a commuter rail line linking Sandusky, Lorain and Cleveland, Blair said. The Cuyahoga County commissioners passed a resolution this week supporting the project and Lorain County's access to the funds, she said.